The R/V CAPE HATTERAS is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated under a renewable Charter Party Agreement by the Duke/UNC Oceanographic Consortium. Her homeport is at Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina.

The R/V CAPE HATTERAS is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated under a renewable Charter Party Agreement by the Duke/UNC Oceanographic Consortium. Her homeport is at Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina and she is scheduled by UNOLS (University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System). Her areas of operation are the North American coast from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean, and beyond Bermuda. She is operated primarily as a Regional Zone Research Vessel.